The Floral CEO

episode 150
Jeni: [00:00:00] Hello flower friends. This is Jenna, and I'm so excited to share my friend Luis from Joanne Floral Design in Texas. If you guys are on Instagram, you have probably seen one of his charming videos of him making a stunning bouquet or just really sharing the behind the scenes of his business, which is always fascinating because we always wonder what is really going on in someone's business.
So I would love for you to introduce yourself and just tell me a little bit about your background and, um, like all the amazing things you guys do as a family. Running a business.
Luis: Great to be on the show and so great to meet you virtually, at least. Well, my name is Luis Ramirez. I'm one of the owners of Joanne Floral Design.
We've been in business for almost three years, coming up in November, so it's been a fun ride so far. A little bit on how we got into Plural Design is in [00:01:00] our background. I came from a floral family, so we have like a wholesale in Honolulu, Hawaii. So my entire life has always been immersed in flowers.
Ever since I was a kid. We would go to Thea, I'm Latino and help pick up leaves. And as I got older I got a little more interested in floral design. From there I was maybe about 17 and I left Bella Rosa to go work at Japanese flower shops where I really became. Immersed in that culture, got to learn Japanese, at least conversationally, and got to do some international designing, which really grew my skills you know, as a person and as like a designer.
Jeni: Yeah. I mean, your, your design skills, like not only like your bouquets are beautiful, but you curate wedding receptions and like just the installations. Or magical like that disco ball one You did?
Luis: Oh yeah. That was great.
Jeni: So good. Uh, so it's not just [00:02:00] you, it's you and your family. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about that.
Luis: Yeah, so as you know, we have an interesting name, Joanne. And it's come from my, my wife's name who's Josepha and my daughter Annika. So I just put the two words together to create Joanne Laurels. And she's not a florist, but she's. Definitely the, the woman behind the man, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
Luis: Joanne could not operate without Joe. She gets our stacking together and makes sure we have all of our hard goods in lines for every week, every month she does all of the supply purchases. Um, and she just really is the brain behind Joanne. I would say Annika, she's a different monster. She has. Come to the realization that one day she will own Joanne Florals.
So she comes in here and she tries to design or practice. She is [00:03:00] getting a little more interested in what we are doing, which is really, it makes me feel proud that she's just nine years old and she wants to be involved a little more in the company. She even has her own email address. So that's really fun.
Some of the challenges that we have faced to the family having such a high volume business is finding time for one another. I think that that always gets me every season that I will come home rather late. Sometimes, you know, after a breakdown, it's. 1:00 AM and I will go, I go breakdowns. Um, I You go believe that?
I, yeah, I do. I like, we do outsource, but I like to go, if my staff is gonna work a breakdown, I'm gonna work a breakdown because I'm not better than them and I just feel like I should be there. 'cause no one's gonna take care of the business more than I am.
Jeni: Yeah.
Luis: Um.
Jeni: But but you, you're also doing big breakdowns.
I mean, the weddings you do, what do, what do you think the average [00:04:00] wedding, like dollar wise, is that you for
Luis: Joan? I mean, it varies, but we usually run between 12 and 30.
Jeni: 12 and 30. And that an average? Yeah. How many are you doing like a year now? I mean, three years. It seems like you've blown up. Yeah,
Luis: we, I think we pumped out.
I can't give you a number. I never remember, but, um, it's over 50.
Jeni: It's over 50.
Luis: It's over 50. Yeah.
Jeni: It's not
Luis: more than 70, but it's definitely over 50.
Jeni: That is crazy. Mm-hmm. You should be proud of yourself. 'cause that's like three years you've, yeah.
Luis: It's, um, it's been I just feel like, I guess as a brand, I really try to make us accessible to everyone.
You know, we won't. I'll talk to everyone. Even if like your form comes in below our minimum, I'll still talk to you, and try to like, bring you in. And I really feel like flowers should just be accessible to everyone.
Jeni: Yeah. So what is your minimum? [00:05:00] Like, do and do you? Um,
Luis: we've been playing it, uh, playing with it, but we start off at six next year.
We'll we'll announce that we're gonna do seven. Okay. But. I've noticed that I have put my minimum to like eight, but you'll see your inquiry rate. Just clum it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Luis: So I don't feel, find it's necessary for me to raise my minimum when I know my average that client is gonna spend 10 at least. Yeah. You know, with me, because I feel like our website and Instagram shows that this is a kind of wedding.
You know what you're gonna get into when you like sign a contract with us.
Jeni: Yeah, I mean you've, that's how I found you is the brand that you've built and it's one of the topics that I wanted to talk about today. 'cause I feel like. People don't understand that a brand is what inevitably is going to start attracting those bigger weddings.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I
Jeni: think a lot of times, like there's just pieces missing. People thinking like all of a sudden, magically I'm going to get $10,000, $50,000 weddings. Or they [00:06:00] want, you know, of course they follow some of the educators that, you know, we've gone back and forth on, on Instagram that hey, you're just gonna start doing $30,000 weddings that just like that.
And I don't think that's real. Like it takes work to get there. And it seems like you've really shortened up the timeframe that I've seen a lot of florists have to go through to get there. And I think that's with the brand you've built. So talk a little bit about, you know, how you've kind of thought about building your brand.
I
Luis: think I like to kinda backtrack first and foremost that before we started the business, I've been in floristry for 16 years prior to that, so I've always been doing flowers, so I already had a very strong skillset when it comes to like designing something as well as like building my own personal style.
So I think that's like a really big thing that a lot of these coaches like let you come in and they're like, you're gonna do, like you said, $30,000 wedding, but if you don't have the experience or like the [00:07:00] skillset to execute that wedding,
Speaker 3: yeah.
Luis: People are gonna notice, like they're gonna see like, oh, that arrangement doesn't look as good.
Or, I see a little piece of tape. Like these little things, people notice them.
Jeni: Wait, Andrew's scared shitless. It's just not real. Like how can we go from here? Because those are the clients I often will get a DM about and they're like, I am so scared to, all of a sudden they magically did book I, I mean I'm, I'm still sometimes curious like how, but they magically did book a big wedding and they're not ready.
That is, yeah. That takes a lot of skill to be able to pull off a 30,000 wedding is Yeah, very, it has such integral parts. Um, yeah.
Luis: You gotta have the cooler space, the staff, the hard goods, like over the last, even like the hard goods itself over the last two years, I have a mass.
Speaker 3: Well
Luis: over six figures in like rentals.
Like just all that money just plowing back into your business. It's a lot. And then the space, you know, you need somewhere to have [00:08:00] that.
Jeni: Um, and you guys used to be in your house, you mentioned? We
Luis: used to be in our house. We used to have, our house is a two story 2,400 square feet. And we enclosed the first thing we did as a business when I booked my first wedding, which was.
It was $30,000.
Jeni: Holy shit. I think
Luis: she was like $34,000 my first book ever. And um,
Jeni: but you had been a florist.
Luis: But I had been a florist, yeah. And I already knew that planner. And I've, I've known all the planners here, which is why I think we got such a headstart. I used to work at a really big event company and I used to do sales for.
And then when I left that company and I went, I won't name names, I went to a different company and I was their lead designer and I brought my planners over, I emailed them like, Hey, I'm here now. And when I left that company and started Joanne, I just reintroduced myself as Joanne. And they all just, you know, flocked over.
Um, I think working for people as crap used to sound is necessary. You know, you have to work for like a. As a salesperson, you gotta do that [00:09:00] grunt work to build those connections. 'cause, um, brand building as much as it is, your design aesthetic is about relationship building. And I think people don't.
Understand that or go do that charity event. Go, don't overdo it. Don't be giving out flowers to everyone, but like, things that are good for good cause like maybe like Eylea or I don't know if you guys are familiar with wpa, really great places to, like I
Jeni: on WPA board.
Luis: Yeah. Great places to like form the chapter you do flowers for.
But just make sure that if you're gonna work with somebody that you, they're understanding that this isn't free. Like you're expecting an ROI. 'cause I think a lot of planners don't do that and I've been very vocal. Um, if a planner comes to me and ask me for something for free, I expect three weddings from you this year,
Jeni: and you just straight out ask for, like, I,
Luis: I don't ask.
I tell them, or you can't work with me. I'm not like at that. My business is not at that level where I need to be doing things for free. I expect ROIs.
Jeni: Okay. And how does that go over? Or they just know that that's how it is?
Luis: [00:10:00] No, I tell them if it's someone who hasn't worked with me, I tell 'em exactly how it is.
And if they would screw me over, then they will never get my wreck and I just won't work with them.
Jeni: Yeah. And has that happened?
Luis: Yeah, it's happened actually at my last WPA event it ended kind of salty. Yeah, but it's okay. You know, I just know that I'm not for that planner. That planner is not for me, and that's okay.
I'm not gonna be everyone's cup of tea.
Jeni: Yeah. I mean, that's, that's natural. But hopefully they're reaching out to you because they know you, they know your plan. Uh,
Luis: yeah. I think they try to. I had another planner friend who was trying to feel that connection between us, but it just didn't work out that way.
And that's okay. You know?
Jeni: Yeah. Yeah. So are you a part of a lot of the networking ilea? Not
Luis: really. I, I was last year but I had a lot of personal, um, struggles come up last year with a lot of like family loss. I had my car accident. I just couldn't be community driven as I was. I hope maybe next year I'll be [00:11:00] able to jump back into that, but, you know, I broke some ribs in my hand and, um, a lot of loss of life in my family, so I just needed to.
Yeah. Step back for a minute and just focus on myself and my family.
Jeni: Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I, it's interesting 'cause I think a lot of florists don't see that work. I mean, I, I love your approach by just saying, you know what I'm happy to do this, but do you do that with styled shoots too? I'm happy to do this, but style
Luis: shoots, yeah.
That was different. If, if it's a planner, that always like feeds me clients. Then I will, without a doubt, always say yes. Um, even photographers, if they have scratched my back, like I'm gonna do a style shoot for them tomorrow. And they did my family style shoot for free of, you know, oh, the
Jeni: one with the roses and Yeah, the
Luis: rose, they did that one.
So I'm doing their, it's not very big, but like, you know, it's a photography one, so it's like a little bit of flowers.
Jeni: Yeah, of course.
Luis: I was like, let's go out and they're no,
Jeni: we're like, um, do something cool.
Luis: Yeah. So, um, but we're gonna do that one for free. You know, it's a lot of give and take. You gotta play ball, you know, if you don't know how to [00:12:00] play ball with the right people, then you're going to, you know, lose money.
Jeni: Yeah. How do you think you've gotten to the place where, you know, know how to play ball with the right people?
Luis: They have to be people who interact with you willingly. People who are always supporting you. People who will always recommend you. I, and also, like, I, I do a couple style sheets for planners that are just getting their head in the game, you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah. And they,
Luis: even if they try to feed me clients, but they're not always booking, they're at least trying, you know, because I might be out of their price point. You know, we're not the cheapest floors, we're not the most expensive floors in town. But if you really believe in someone's company, you don't know.
How far they're gonna go. So you wanna make sure that you set them up. For example, um, I booked a wedding in December and as a planner, who I'm really good friends with we haven't worked together too often, but I've known her and the client came at us with a, [00:13:00] you know, not, not the biggest budget, but my intention is to make that wedding, the wedding for her.
So really turn it up, increase its budget with my own personal money. Yeah. That way. She will have that portfolio, and it's at a good venue. She's a good planner and she has a good photography team. Like those three things are essential. You can't just do a really nice wedding for someone at a less than.
I wanna use the word a less than premium venue, if that makes sense. Right. You have to be very selective on when you're gonna do it. What's the season? You know? If it's winter, you're slow. Everyone's slow. In Texas, it's in winter. That's when you should do it, you know? 'cause there'll be plen of flowers. No one's buying flowers, which means there's a huge surplus.
Like all these little things I'm always thinking about.
Jeni: Yeah. So part of what I thought was interesting is that you just really show up in your business on Instagram, and it sounds like that has done really well for you. Like you have, I think, is it [00:14:00] 15,000 followers or more than that? 31. 30. Holy shit. I totally had it wrong.
That's a lot. I mean, like, you've worked really hard for that.
Luis: Yeah. It's hard to get a hundred
Jeni: followers sometimes, so I can't imagine being in the Oh yeah. You just did celebrate when you hit 30, didn't you?
Luis: It was a 20, but we're about to do a, a new, she, we got some polo jackets. We're gonna celebrate 30.
30. Yeah.
Jeni: That is amazing. How do you think you got there? Like, I think everybody just doesn't understand like, the big picture of what it even takes to, to get there.
Luis: I think people wanna see who you are as a person and there's a fly right there. Mm-hmm. Got it. Yes, I killed it. Sorry. I think people just really wanna see who you are.
It's not just the pretty flowers. Um. They wanna know the things that you like to do, how silly someone can be. 'cause everything's, she
Jeni: acts pretty silly [00:15:00] sometimes, which is very entertaining.
Luis: Really silly, you know? And that's just who I am, you know? And I wanna like let your viewers know that it's okay to be nervous.
On camera. I get really nervous on camera. I don't even like to make my recordings with my wife in the studio. She gotta be upstairs or in the console room. 'cause I get really self-conscious about my appearance. As hard as that, my. As unbelievable as that may sound, I am sometimes I'm very uncomfortable in my own skin doing the things that I do on camera.
'cause it's just not my personality to be like that. But I know how do you that, that,
Jeni: how do you show up when you're nervous and when you know things don't feel good? And I mean, you show up not just like once a week. I mean, you're consistently showing up in your business like crazy. And I think. The, as a coach, what I hear is people are like, that sounds scary, and so I can't do it.
How do you get past? Yes, that's scary, but I still do it.[00:16:00]
Luis: You're gonna feel stupid and I'm just gonna just tell people, you just gotta do it. And you gotta find things that work for you. Don't be afraid. What I do is I'll put a mirror in front of my actual phone.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And
Luis: that way I can see what I look like, you know? You just gotta really practice and practice and practice and make sure that your videos, they're with intention and with a message like as you can be as thirsty or as educational as you want it, as long as your message comes across, comes across as positive.
Speaker 3: Think
Luis: positivity is what the people want. You know, especially in these days where things are so negative.
Jeni: I, I agree. 'cause if your feed is just inundated with everything, like the world sucks. Yeah. Like, you know, honestly it does sometimes.
Luis: Yeah. Like I noticed a lot of like are like, you gotta pay $8,000 for an arch.
You gotta pay $6,000 for tall centerpiece. Like all these, it's such a negative, [00:17:00] it puts a negative spin on floristry as an industry. Like maybe give out options instead, like.
Jeni: For what? You don't have to do anything.
Luis: Yeah. Like you don't have to do like a trio of bud basis. You could do like six or nine on a round table.
You know, like give people options with different price points and let your consumer connect with you as a business because a lot of people are looking for the best value and you wanna show them that you can be flexible with your value.
Jeni: Yeah, and I think. We focus on value and so many floors focus on price, and I think that that's where people fall short.
There is always somebody that can be lower price than you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Jeni: But you deliver an immense value in your design aesthetic, in your personality. I'm guessing your customer service is amazing. Your details are probably pulled off flawlessly. 'cause it sounds like your wife is the organizational queen of the world.
I mean, like that isn't the case in most [00:18:00] businesses. Like people are flying by the seat of their pants. We have. Somebody that does like 90 weddings in my market, and when I look at her shit like her eucalyptus is dead on her tables. And it's just like, oh my God, how can you? But that's somebody's business that is busy and that's what they're doing, and people are still booking.
So there's always someone, and I'm guessing like you've just really attracted a lot of someones because of your personality and you've done that showing up scared, which you should be really proud of yourself. 'cause most people, especially most people that have coached just won't even do it. Period. Yeah.
Is it like that for just you? Or, I know your wife isn't, your wife is a big part of the business, but I know she is kind of running the background and you're doing more the design. Is it easier to show up when you're designing flowers or when you're just talking for you?
Luis: Can you rephrase the question?
Jeni: Well, you, you, Desi you also do like just talking, like talking about just, but [00:19:00] you do a lot of design videos. Like I had to zoom in. I'm like, is he using a chicken egg? Yeah. Is he using a little chicken wire thing? And so you do a ton of designing on there. Does one of those feel more comfortable for you or is it kind of just like, I'm doing it no matter what?
I
Luis: think I'm just kind of doing it no matter what, and a lot of, I won't post half the content I record,
Jeni: really Because you don't like it or because, yeah,
Luis: because I don't like it, or I feel like. I don't have the right messaging for that particular video, like, or even like something as silly as the right song to match that particular vibe.
Or maybe I'm not looking my Instagram best.
Jeni: You curate some pretty funny funny,
Luis: salt like that.
Jeni: I think there was one last week where it wa, was it candy shop or something? I mean, it was just hot.
Luis: Oh my gosh. That was hilarious. A lot of that, you know what I would tell people is if you're, I got that video inspiration from a girl who was selling tacos and her client said that the [00:20:00] tacos are not hot enough, and then she, she did that whole kind of like thirsty spiel.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You just
Luis: take any content like that and just make it floral related. Yeah.
Jeni: Um, and that video did really well for you, didn't it? Like Yeah,
Luis: it did pretty good. The cactus video.
Jeni: Yeah. Um,
Luis: that one almost got 3 million booze on TikTok. I know.
Speaker 3: Well, hey. And
Luis: um, I know, and that was a dude cooking eggs and he dropped the pen, caught the pan, so I just caught a cactus instead.
Jeni: Did it hurt?
Luis: Yeah. That tear was real.
Jeni: That tear was real. Yeah. You probably have lots of cactuses. Is it really dry where you guys are?
Luis: Yeah. Um, but we, I just, we had a wedding, you know that super big fall y'all install? We did,
Jeni: yeah, yeah, yeah.
Luis: That was for that wedding.
Jeni: Not that I'm stalking you, but I watch your Instagram content.
You guys, you should follow him if you do not because it is. Uh, not only like watching you design your bouquets, you can see how [00:21:00] much joy they bring you. And it's so funny 'cause I teach a lot of people bouquets. It's like joy sucking. So it's fun for me as you know, a florist to see somebody who's really just getting into it and also seeing you being hard on yourself because I've seen you tear apart things too and you know, just be like, that sucked.
I'm redoing it. And I don't think as creatives we document the messy moments. That gets you to the beautiful piece. And so I really applaud like being able to post content like that because it's not, yeah,
Luis: no, I think that's a big thing. If you're not happy with something, don't just let it out, start again. And that's like super okay to do. I have had bouquets at like, I've done four or five times, or when we were at home studio, I would wake up the morning of the wedding at 2:00 AM. Go
Speaker 3: downstairs
Luis: and redo it because she goes, I just cannot let it go. Yeah. I can't, you know, it's just not in my, it's part of [00:22:00] like my Japanese training.
Like, if it's not perfect, it's not acceptable, you know, it's just something that's really like engraved in me as a person. You know? I don't like people to see when it's not my best,
Jeni: are you hard on yourself? 'cause it, I, I get a vibe that you're hard on yourself.
Luis: Yeah. I am really hard on myself. Do.
I feel like I have something to prove, you know, as a male in the industry. When I first started, I, I felt like I was like, there's a lot of ladies here in Texas and I just feel like seen as a threat. Somebody, you know, I'm Latin, I'm from Hawaii, you know, I'm just like not a part of Texas, you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Luis: And I felt like a lot of people just saw me as like, oh, who's this dude? Or I'd even get like. Hate comments or like even got phone calls at one time, you know, someone would call me and like, you suck. Like, you know, like, just like really like ugly like messages and texts. And I think a lot of that comes from like jealousy 'cause of how [00:23:00] fast we go.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Luis: As, as fast as we've grown. And I just had to, and those kinds of comments and that type of negativity. Only drives me to try to do it better, be better not to make people more jealous because I want the people who hate me to like me, as toxic as that sounds, you know? But, um, we want
Jeni: everybody to like us.
I mean, it's, yeah, every, every, everybody
Luis: wants every once, and that's not gonna happen, but I'm gonna try.
Jeni: Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that. It's mainly because you were a man and showing up in like a, a different kind of way than tr a traditional force, or do you think it was your growth that kind of sparked that?
Luis: I think the mixture of both. Like, I think as a, as a dude, I can get away with a lot, you know? No one's gonna call me a slut, you know? Yeah. That's like, if there is a double standard, it's awful. Totally awful. Or I would never say that to a, I wouldn't encourage people to. [00:24:00] See the passion behind floristry, you know?
You know, you can be passionate and be really fun about it, you know?
Jeni: And that doesn't assign gender to passion.
Luis: Yeah, don't, yeah, it doesn't weird to me. Yeah. You can just do whatever you want to your business, you know? Yeah.
Jeni: And that's
Luis: okay.
Jeni: What do you think has really been like the key ingredient to you building a business in three years, doing 50 weddings at the average that you're doing?
I mean, that's like. Skyrocket growth. You had to move outta your home studio. It looks like you are, are you in a building now? Or like,
Luis: oh, we're in a warehouse, but, um, warehouse, it's pretty big. Yeah. I would show you the back, but we are reorganizing because that's a whole nother story. Like
Jeni: Yeah, we,
Luis: yeah. Um,
Jeni: it's a constant, I mean, we just moved and like everything, we moved to a farm and everything is gone in the park.
Luis: Yeah. Like. I don't know. We just realized that we don't have, we're not gonna have enough space for all of our weddings in October, so we have to reactivate the home [00:25:00] cooler. 'cause the garage is still enclosed and operate our San Antonio weddings out of that 'cause it's just not gonna fit. You know?
Jeni: You need a backup cooler after you, yeah.
Yeah. That's 'cause I mean, how hot is it down there in October?
Luis: Well, it really varies. Sometimes it could be 70, sometimes it could be 90.
Jeni: Oh yeah. That's tough. Yeah, it's
Luis: really, and it's still really hot right now and I just think everyone should just have a fully operating cooler, like that's first and foremost.
And then this little cool room. You gotta have a cooler,
Jeni: I know, but I can ask about cool rooms all the time. A lot
Luis: of people don't do it. Like, I mean, I don't have like a super cooler, it's like we built it, we framed it, it's just a room, but it's very functional, know.
Jeni: Is it a CoolBot or what?
Luis: It's a CoolBot. Yeah.
Jeni: And does that work well for you?
Luis: It works very well as long as you use insulation panel high grade. You don't use the cheap one. Use the $75 one.
Jeni: Oh, the $75 panel? Yeah.
Luis: Yeah, yeah. Did
Jeni: did you make one before that didn't use the 75 and it was like, [00:26:00]
Luis: Nope. I always used the best. Oh, that's actually don't joke.
Doesn't high.
Jeni: Sorry.
Luis: Okay. It's my wife.
Jeni: Hi. Hi Jenny. Sorry. That's okay. We were just, uh, talking about your cooler and all the amazing things that you're doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Jeni: But yeah, so you have that, you have this other one. So you just have, I mean, a lot you have, your weddings have just kind of blown up and uh, do you think that's because planners, do you think that's because showing up on social media?
What do you think? Really?
Luis: I say it's luck. Just because of my background, always just being involved in flowers, coming to Texas immediately working with planners. Like we moved and it was two weeks later, I'm working at this big event company selling weddings. Um, not knowing what I was doing honestly, but, um, it's through these relationships that you kind of nurture and you build a bond with people, you really become friends with them.[00:27:00]
And that has led me to grow as much as I did. Obviously social media, but following for me means nothing. I just, I post on Instagram for fun. It doesn't really help my, I mean, it is brand awareness, but it doesn't like help me that much. You know, I never get like a form. You get the
Jeni: message that says Instagram 'cause I get the form that says Instagram,
Luis: A ton.
No, I get all my forms through my website.
Jeni: No, I mean, but the source. Do you ask Source?
Luis: No.
Jeni: Oh, I asked Source and they said I
Luis: get, uh, like 50% of my weddings through like planners. The other 50 are through my website.
Jeni: Okay.
Luis: I should really put that, yeah, that source. I know where they're coming
Jeni: from. Yeah, the source is helpful.
Well, I like it when, especially if it is a referral from a planner, they put that in there, so, right. Or being
Luis: on a preferred vendors list. That's great. You know, at venues we're on quite a few so's been really helpful, but that's just happened this year. Like we started getting on a lot of them for the, in 2026 [00:28:00] we got put on three other vendor list.
So that's really. Beneficial. You know, being friends with these venues and cleaning up after yourself and helping them whenever you get the chance. Like just be that flourish. That is helpful. We'll help the venue put up chairs if we have some time, you know? Yeah. Or clean up the leads, you know, off the grass.
Like it's not that difficult to be like. Respect the place that you're working at.
Jeni: Yeah. I, and honestly, that doesn't happen a lot. Like the, I I like to No trace left behind. Yeah. Like I can't tell that we were here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Jeni: And that is not what I hear from venues. Like reviews are like. We literally, it looks like a tornado went through here and the Floris didn't care.
Yeah, because I'm on a lot of preferred vendor lists and it's like, why don't we care? Like that's our brand. That's part of our brand, yeah. Is even going up at the venue.
Luis: Yeah. And I don't know what is with these florist and not like saints repurposing like candles. When did that come become a thing? 'cause we always [00:29:00] stayed there.
Light candles almost always. Oh. In our,
Jeni: in Minnesota, like the catering company or the venue lights, all candles.
Luis: Really lucky you.
Jeni: Yeah. We don't usually
Luis: catering will do it, but it's our business motto to stay.
Jeni: And do you, it's usually charge for, huh?
Luis: It's all inclusive. It's just part of a, you get charged for that, obviously in the setup.
Fee. You know, we break it down, it's not a percentage. We don't do that 30% thing. We like really break it up like into four different parts. Okay. Deliveries set up, break down, and then there's of course a rental cleanup fee. 'cause someone needs to do it. Yeah. And that gets charged by the person, so sometimes it could be very large.
Jeni: So you charge a cleanup fee to clean up rentals afterwards?
Luis: Yeah.
Jeni: And like what I, I've never heard of anybody doing that. Like what does that look like? I
Luis: usually charge, like if it's like depending on like the wedding, if it's like a little $6,000 wedding, then it's like, and then I know in [00:30:00] my mind that they're gonna need at least four hours to clean all those bases up and put it away, you know?
So you get charged. One 20. If it's a bigger wedding, you'll get charged like two 40 or three six. It depends on how big the wedding is. Is that charge, that fee will change? And how much candles? It's basically a candle cleanup fee. Yeah,
Jeni: candle fee. '
Luis: cause nobody wants to clean up that, so,
Jeni: no, it sucks. You know, and
Luis: I'm not gonna do it.
Like, I honestly don't do it.
Jeni: Yeah. Do you do a lot like just tapers pillars?
Luis: Um, yeah. I never used like traditional pillar candles anymore. I use the stone candles, the candles with the hole inside.
Jeni: Oh, okay. Have you seen
Luis: those?
Jeni: Yeah, I they're like quartz or like,
Luis: they're like, no, no, they're real. These bad boys.
They're, they're waxed. They just have like, hole in it and you just pop white insert in it, throw it in vase, and call it a day.
Jeni: What?
Luis: Yeah.
Jeni: What company makes those
Luis: two candles? They're out in California.
Jeni: U candles or [00:31:00] new candles?
Luis: Q Like literally cute.
Jeni: Q Candles.
Luis: Q candles. They, and they custom size, custom colors.
They just last forever. Obviously. You still have to put the paper wrap before you throw in the cylinder. You make the mark, but you know, you just, oh, because
Jeni: it is waxy. And so it will mark up your
Luis: Yeah, they're real. They're real candles. Yeah.
Jeni: Crazy. I was, I know you and you, that pearled, what do you think of the pearled wax?
Luis: Oh, I got like a love and hate relationship with them. I, I love that they're just so easy, but they get dirty.
Jeni: I know like they
Luis: get dirty, like, so every two events we have to dump everything out. They make this powdery thing or like, you know, you're throwing like the breakdown stuff in a van and the leaves will get in and turn into little black specks and I will literally sit there and like make my people like, go get every little black speck.
'cause I hate it. You know, like,
Speaker 3: yeah.
Luis: It's, I love and hate it. Um, but for me, stone candles are for the wind.
Jeni: That's [00:32:00] amazing. Good tip. And then I probably will ask you for, if I can't find it for the company name. The link. Yeah. So we completed in the uh, the show notes because people are always looking for, for the
Luis: easy way.
Yeah. I don't know why people keep using traditional candles. I'm just like, stop doing. It's a waste of money. 'cause you could still charge. Whatever you want to charge. 10 or $15 a candle, just use the same thing over and over again. No mess, no fuss. And you
Jeni: put an oil insert in there it looked like, right?
Luis: Yeah. Yep. And you buy that in bulk and they're like 34 cents if you buy like over a thousand.
Jeni: That is so good. Yeah. I, I'm a yummy candle person. Like I get, I
Luis: love yummies, like they're taper candles. I, we, we always use these. Oh good. It's lawless. Lawless. But, um, I think I sell more pillar cam because I charge a little more for tapers 'cause of the sleeve.
Jeni: Yeah. I mean, that's a lot to clean. It's
Luis: yeah,
Jeni: crazy. Do you have their taper candle things or you kind of have all Oh
Luis: no. I use almost exclusively yummies, unless I like, forget to order something and I'm like, oh, I got Amazon and I only use D light if that's [00:33:00] my, like, plan B,
Jeni: D, light
Luis: D light candles. They're the next, uh, triples candles.
Jeni: Triple. I've had some dripless candles that I was like, what are you guys smoking? Because No, but like, uh, D like is
Luis: really good. They're almost yummy is good. Hmm.
Jeni: Interesting. And they're on Amazon?
Luis: Yeah, I have. They're definitely for quick fix. 'cause you know, we're all people, so we always,
Jeni: well and yummy sometimes can take forever.
Luis: Yeah, I know. And it's like
Jeni: Canada coming into our country thing. Yeah. Sometimes gets complicated and yeah.
Luis: I love those new tariff clause, the little line item like, oh my.
Jeni: I know, and I mean, I'm in Minnesota, so I would get it way faster than you.
Luis: Yeah.
Jeni: I mean, we're like right there, but I imagine getting it to Texas.
Uh,
Luis: my wife tries to buy them like for a six week period, and then we'll buy a bulk again. So sometimes we're buying like three, 400 candles every few weeks.
Jeni: Yeah. She's so organized, so organized. I love it. She's, you guys have to be with the volume you guys are doing. We
Luis: definitely do. [00:34:00] I've noticed it's been getting harder and harder trying to keep things running smoothly around here.
Or the bigger we get, the more freelancers I need.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Um,
Luis: but the talent is sometimes not there.
Speaker 3: So
Luis: I struggle with that. Like I make a mockup and I'll present it to them. Be like, okay, this is, you gotta make 10 of these. And every single time, like something really wrong with it or the mechanic is showing and we're not like the kind of florists who, like,
Speaker 3: you don't want that.
Luis: We don't, we always have more than enough, you know, we always have extra, there's extra greens, so I don't understand like, the problem there, like that's a whole nother conversation.
Jeni: Freelancers can be tricky and it's kind of a necessary evil 'cause you have to have them. But I try to approach it like it's my job.
Somebody comes in the studio to help them, educate them and hopefully elevate them.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Jeni: So I wanna make sure that, you know, [00:35:00] it might not necessarily be how they would do it when they have a wedding, but they're at least learning a different way and, yeah. But not everybody's receptive to that. Yeah.
Sometimes it's like, I've been doing this this way for, um, teen years and I was just like, well, I don't, you've been
Luis: doing it wrong for that long. You've
Jeni: been doing it wrong, or it looks like shit like, yeah. Inevitably, like, that's not my studio. Like, I'm not gonna do something that looks like a funeral par parlor, you know, is at a wedding.
It's just not, not gonna happen.
Luis: But we actually have some, um. We call 'em our interns. The high school reached out to us and we are gonna get three of them twice a week. And they're gonna come and just help out with hard goods and stuff, and I'm hoping that every week we'll be able to like set, set aside some flowers for them, you know, to like, play with.
I almost always try to save almost as much breakdown flowers as possible. And I use those breakdown flowers for like content video or like, just even practicing. It's. I like to play with flowers a lot. So [00:36:00] kind. Do you guys have a
Jeni: place to donate them as well?
Nonprofit?
Luis: Yeah. We do have, um, there's push for pedals,
Jeni: push for pedals,
Luis: push pedals, but, um, anything that we have in house we are right next to a church.
So there, or you know, our warehouses, our, we call 'em our neighbors, you know, they have wives and stuff, so we'll like make them arrangements for their lobby or whatever and just give it to them.
Jeni: Just doing good deeds all the time. So
Luis: doing good deeds, what we're about.
Jeni: So what, uh, I know we're getting close to, to, um, to time probably, but what do you think was the biggest key component of the success you guys are having right now
to the goal? Stick to the goal.
Luis: What? What?
Jeni: Stick to the goal. Stick the goal.
Luis: Stick to the, just, yeah. No matter what anyone tells you. I think just always just staying true to who you are, your brand, and why you started your business in the first place, I think, and then [00:37:00] being really open and honest about that.
I think the people has been very receptive to that, that we have remained true to who we are as a business regardless of on how big we've gotten. And we hope to continue to stay that way for as long as I own this company that we're gonna, we're gonna be that florist. The floor is for everyone.
Jeni: You always go to the question like, why would we start this business?
Luis: Yeah, we, yeah. My, we always have to. Yeah. My wife, yeah. We sometimes we think about raising our prices, but then we'll lose ourselves, I mean, obviously we're a profitable business, you know? We need to see profitable. We need to pay our bills.
Jeni: Well, you got a building. Yeah,
Luis: we have a building, so, um, but we don't wanna.
Price Gs just because everyone else wants to or because certain people are telling me to. You know, I think that's, that will destroy our business.
Jeni: Yeah. I mean, your reputation is your business and Yeah.
Luis: So,
Jeni: yeah.
Luis: Yeah.
Jeni: So [00:38:00] how do people follow along? Of course, I'll put everything in the show notes, but where do we find you?
So you're on Insta, you're on TikTok, um,
Luis: TikTok, and that's basically threads, but we're never really posting on there. Um, we are gonna play around with doing school. Have you seen that app? It's like a teaching. Yeah. So doing like little like tutorials on how to make arrangements and stuff. We're gonna try to start that, but.
It being fall season now, it's really difficult for us to find time to, you know, make a real 20 minute video on how to make an arrangement.
Luis: but just reach out to us. I feel like a lot of people, a lot of florists like DM me on Instagram. With the amount of notifications we get, things do get lost, and that's like the downside of having that amount of followers and then we're sorry for that.
But we do try to get back to everyone.
Jeni: You human. SA, is it the same social? Is it, so can you spell it out so just so everybody can go find it?
Luis: Oh, it's, um, [00:39:00] at j do a n floral design, you know, F-L-O-R-A-L-D-D-E-S-I. N-G-O-G-N-I can't spell, so
Jeni: That's okay. It'll be in the show notes too. But it was so amazing to talk to you.
I hope you guys got little nuggets out of our conversation. 'cause I think that there were so many in there that I, I think our lessons that some floors never learn and that's why their business just kind of stays where it is. So congratulations on 30 K and congratulations on like. Where you're at in three years, you and your wife and your whole family should just be so proud.
Luis: Thank you so much, and thank you to you for, you've been with us since the beginning, so
Jeni: Yeah. I, you know, you're
Luis: doing so well too. I, and I loved your new brand shoot. That was spot on.
Jeni: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I, I love pink and orange and gr I'm gonna be doing another one pretty soon. I'm excited. Just you run outta content fast.
It's like I just took a bunch of pictures, [00:40:00] but like Yeah, I
Luis: know. Do it
Jeni: again. Well thanks. Thanks so much for coming on the show.
Luis: Thanks Jeni. Bye.